5 replies to this topic

[systems_glitch]

I was recently given an AT&T Unix PC by my employer, who was getting ready to throw it out. It seems to be entirely working, except for the old MFM hard drive -- someone didn't park the heads when they were done using it, and when I started it up, the heads pulled part of the disk's oxide surface off. I've got a replacement MFM drive, but the system disks aren't with the machine, and no one can remember seeing them in the past few years. If someone has a copy (it's some AT&T System V-compatible version of UNIX for the Motorola 68000), and can make images of the disks, or knows where images might be found online, I do have the facilities to produce new 5.25" boot disks for it. Any help appreciated!

[frogbong]

I have no idea; if Google hasn't yielded anything promising you might have to mass-post on usergroups of the like looking for old system software. I have a similar problem in that I have a Apple Macintosh SE(made in 1987) and I can't find system software anywhere. I need MacOS 7.5 or earlier and well, that shit just ain't gunna happen because I couldn't run it off of a cd, only 1.44mb and HD floppies supported, which I haven't found yet. Anyway, you might try ebay or other online stores. A lot of people sell their old operating-system software online.

[systems_glitch]

I have a Apple Macintosh SE(made in 1987) and I can't find system software anywhere. I need MacOS 7.5 or earlier and well, that shit just ain't gunna happen because I couldn't run it off of a cd, only 1.44mb and HD floppies supported, which I haven't found yet. Anyway, you might try ebay or other online stores. A lot of people sell their old operating-system software online.

If you still need those disks, PM me -- the images are free from Apple, actually, if you know where to find them on their FTP server. They've released all of the old System software sets up to (but not including) MacOS 8 as free. The hard part is writing them, since, IIRC, it can't be done with a regular PC, but must be done from an Apple machine. I can make the disks from the images for you, since I've got several old Macs with 1.4 MB and 800 KB drives.

Anyhow, a few days after my post here, a friend directed me toward the BitSavers site (another software archiving project). Someone had uploaded a copy of AT&T System V UNIX a few days earlier. I created a diagnostics disk for the UNIX PC, and found the cause of trouble is definitely a fried hard drive. It's an old MiniScribe MFM drive, which were known for being junk. Hopefully, one of my other MFM drives will play nice with the UNIX PC's controller.

Edited by systems_glitch, 15 October 2009 - 11:58 AM.

[BinaryLust]

...I have a Apple Macintosh SE(made in 1987)...

WOW! I have to get me one of those. I learned Pascal on that back in like pre-school. The sound of the hard drive on that machine is imprinted into my cranium. When I die and see the white light I will hear the chugg, chugg, chugg of the Mac SE hard drive.

[frogbong]

Hopefully I'm right there with you buddy..

[jfalcon]

I have no idea; if Google hasn't yielded anything promising you might have to mass-post on usergroups of the like looking for old system software. I have a similar problem in that I have a Apple Macintosh SE(made in 1987) and I can't find system software anywhere. I need MacOS 7.5 or earlier and well, that shit just ain't gunna happen because I couldn't run it off of a cd, only 1.44mb and HD floppies supported, which I haven't found yet. Anyway, you might try ebay or other online stores. A lot of people sell their old operating-system software online.

Apple support has their FTP site on HTTP now... below is the link:
http://support.apple...iewlocale=en_US

Specifically you'll want the software under the "System Software Downloads" header...

Edited by jfalcon, 21 October 2009 - 12:27 PM.